JOHN SWEENEY'S CLIENT CASE STUDIES
(download .pdf file of all case studies)

MEDTRONIC

JJohn and the BNW have worked with Minnesota’s medical giant on a number of events; from delivering keynotes speeches to leading training sessions; and from providing custom entertainment to sketch writing services. At one particular session, John focused the 8 Secrets toward adaptability for a group of 60 research scientists taking part in one of the company’s professional development programs. The scientists hailed from four specific groups within Medtronic: engineering sciences, biotechnology, polymers, and surface technologies. Though John is NOT an expert in any of these areas, he was comforted to know that had he experienced a heart attack, these people definitely had the drugs and equipment to treat him. Later the same year, John provided the keynote for Medtronic’s World Wide Law Department meeting, addressing the topics of leadership, teamwork, change management and innovation.

John was honored to also speak to approximately 600 Medtronic employees from the company’s Technical Forum (an internal organization started over 25 years ago by Medtronic founder Earl Bakken to promote technical excellence, enhance communication, and reward outstanding technical achievement). Mr. Bakken began his work by thinking “what if we electrocuted people’s hearts to regulate their beating?” Now that is the type of radically innovative thought that keeps our hearts racing at the BNW!

John and the BNW corporate entertainment team continue to work with Medtronic. Several events are slated for 2008 and we look forward to each and every one of them.


"Thank you for providing fantastic insight into how even lawyers can use improv techniques to provide better service and have more fun doing it. As entertaining as your time with our Law Department was, the deeper lessons were even more valuable. I've encouraged people to get out of their pigeon holdes, to break down the 'silos" between groups... Your appearance was clearly one of the highlights of our days together and the feedback has been tremendous."

Terry Carlson
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary


“I am writing to tell you how thrilled we were with the Brave New Workshop performance last week at our annual World Wide Human Resources Leadership Conference. The response has been off the charts. Everybody loved it and filling the auditorium with laughter was the perfect way to cap off a successful conference. Your performance was an absolute highlight of our week and this was reflected in the surveys we received from the attendees. On a 5 point scale, you were rated as a 4.8. Just outstanding!

Grace Gorringe
Director, Leadership Development